Vallejo is tops in the nation in ethnic diversity

Vallejo is the nation's most diverse city, and Solano County is among the nation's most ethnically diverse areas, a newly released report shows.

But the area could shift one way or the other if current trends continue.

Vallejo is the country's most diverse city, with the percentages of the four main ethnic groups nearly evenly distributed, according to the new NerdWallet study published this week in Business Insider.com. NerdWallet is a consumer website.

A 100 percent diverse city would have

25 percent each of Hispanic / Latino, white, black and Asian/Pacific Islander. At 96.9 percent diversity, Vallejo has a population that is 23.7 percent Latino, 24.1 percent white,

The Business Insider story notes that the U.S. population is shifting, and that "with the Senate passing a major immigration reform bill and a U.S. Census report forecasting that white people will become a minority in the U.S. by 2043, we are slowly inching towards a much more diverse future."

A 2012 Brown University study ranked the Vallejo-Fairfield Metro area the country's most diverse, as well.

"According to the US2010 Project, immigrants from Latin America, Asia, and elsewhere have expanded the population of minority residents beyond African Americans, a trend that experts say will eventually lead to as many 'minority' as 'non-minority' residents, if it continues," that report notes.

In Vallejo, the Hispanic population is growing the fastest -- nearly 43 percent between 2000 and two years ago -- after a group called "non-Hispanic Other Race," which increased about 53 percent, according to the U.S. Census.

No one from the Census Bureau returned calls requesting a definition of that designation, but it seems likely it's a group with such small numbers, that a tiny population increase would register as a large percentage.

The census shows Vallejo white and Native American population falling. The Asian / Pacific Island population and the multi-racial population each increased about 19 percent in that time, while the black population grew 2 percent. In Solano County, the black population is falling, Solano County public information officer Stephen Pierce said.

Pierce said county officials are aware that a demographic shift is underway here.

"Hispanics are expected to be the majority population in Solano County by 2051," Pierce said. "But there are two definitions of minority -- numerical and power."

At the other end of the spectrum, NerdWallet also produced a least diverse cities list, on which Los Angeles-area communities Huntington Park andEast Los Angeles were the top two, at 97.9 percent and 97.7 percent Hispanic, respectively. The number three spot is held by Lancaster, Ohio, which is 96.3 percent white.

While saying he's read that California will be "a minority majority" state by next year, Vallejo City Manager Dan Keen said he places no value judgment on a community's demographics and that the ethnic makeup of a city has little bearing on how it's managed.

"Residents want good city services, jobs, economic opportunity," Keen said. "I think the income level of the community is much more important."

Keen said he's not sure what conclusions can be drawn from the latest figures, but "it sounds like something we should be proud of. We're a culturally richer community for that kind of diversity. And I think we do a decent job of celebrating it." For the full study, visit http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/2013/most-diverse-cities-in-america/